Traditionally, telecommunications service providers (telcos) shielded telecommunications customers from the logistical problems associated with using the facilities of other telcos. The customer transacted business directly with the local service provider. The local telco settled remote repair and billing questions and included these costs in their service rates.
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 created a new competitive arena for the procurement of telecommunications services. In order to reduce network access costs, some customers have opted to contract directly for network access with remote telcos along frequently-used data routes. The result is a telecommunications industry that is highly fragmented in terms of ownership and usage of networks. Many different telecommunications service providers own the multitudinous pieces of equipment composing the various data transmission networks that span the globe. Telecommunications customers must frequently utilize the facilities of many different telecommunications service providers in order to transmit data from one location to another. For example, to transmit data along a single circuit from New York City to Los Angeles, several different telecommunications service companies will likely be required to provide access to their equipment to complete the transmission. When a telecommunications customer encounters a network problem, that customer usually must navigate a complicated web of service providers and equipment owners in order to receive meaningful technical assistance from a human technician.
To solve the increased complexity of circuit design and maintenance a number of automated systems have been proposed. These prior art systems rely heavily on computers to organize and track circuit designs, which although may appear efficient is useless in the highly competitive and secretive nature of the telcos. The increased fragmentation amongst telcos has also led to an increased fragmentation of the computing systems that are used. Each telco almost always has a unique proprietary system that it is unwilling to share with other telcos. Thus, the prior art systems fail to account for the reality of a fragmented telco system and fail to offer the customer any real practical solutions.
One example of a commonly-used system is the Access Request Management System (ARMS), described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,224, which receives circuit order information and reduces it to a convenient format for implementation by other system components or personnel. The ARMS includes an order entry database for tracking conventional and special requests for telecommunications services from the circuit creation stage to the design and implementation stages.
Another known computer system for order management is the Trunks Integrated Record Keeping System (TIRKS) developed by Bellcore. TIRKS is a mainframe-based system which provides circuit order control, circuit design support, inventory record maintenance, selection and assignment of components from inventory, and preparation and distribution of circuit work orders. TIRKS runs only on a mainframe computer system. Generally, TIRKS receives circuit orders in an order control module which controls message/trunk, special service, and carrier system orders by tracking critical dates as the order is processed through completion. The order control module communicates with a circuit provisioning system which operates in conjunction with other TIRKS components to assign facility and equipment information for circuit orders and design circuits. Under certain conditions, TIRKS provides automated design criteria for particular circuit orders. The circuit design generated by TIRKS is communicated to a plant or field for implementation, and the plant also informs the order control module of the circuit implementation for tracking purposes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,224 (hereinafter '224) discloses a circuit provisioning system oriented toward the task of continuing to use certain legacy computer systems while updating the method to take advantage of the flexibility of distributed systems. The output of the '224 patent is a set of design layout records and other information required for the initial stage of circuit provisioning: circuit creation and implementation. This system is not intended for monitoring completed circuits after the implementation stage.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,640,505 (hereinafter '505) discloses a method and apparatus for performing administrative network tasks entirely by computer, including billing services. The '505 patent provides a comprehensive operational support structure for services and technologies associated with a telecommunications network. The support structure includes the capability to receive orders for new service or to correct problems, record the order information in a database, and reconfigure network technologies to begin providing the new service or to correct the problem. In addition, the '505 patent includes an automated bill generator which uses database information to automatically generate requests for payment from customers. The input to the system is the initial order entry, and the completed, computer-dependent task result is the output. While comprehensive, this system facilitates only those tasks that can be completed without human interaction.
The prior art focuses on design and maintenance of telecommunications services from a technical support perspective, rather than from an administrative and accounting perspective. The result of such a focus is specialization of the circuit provisioning system for particular network components or architectures. Such specialization leads to additional fragmentation whereby proprietary data for different telecommunication service providers exist on separate systems, and no single circuit provisioning system contains all information necessary to administer multiple circuits for several different customers. At least for this reason, the prior art falls short of providing customized and consolidated billing services for several different customers, client/server or network-based database access, or interactive interfaces for convenient reference and display of multiple circuit information.
In contrast to the prior art, the present invention is designed and intended to facilitate human interactions for technical support and administrative tasks involving telecommunications services. Resolution of the logistical problems associated with tracking equipment and personnel across a range of telecommunications service providers requires the use of a user-friendly interface for managing the database. The present invention recognizes that human technicians and administrators will manage the network and facilitates their interaction. The present invention offers a practical, cost efficient management system for overcoming telco fragmentation and re-introducing circuit design and maintenance accountability.